Sunday, April 23, 2017

One of
the things I want to do is drive though the Hudson River Valley. I have travelled though part of it by
train. In fact, the Amtrak ride from NYC
to Montreal is a stunning, beautiful trip.
I highly recommend everyone take that rail journey at least once. I do, however, want to drive though part of
those towns.

And
now, after reading this book, I have a couple more places I want to stop.

Adamovic
looks at the Hudson valley though the lenses of seasons. Along the way, he hits places of historical
importance – such as Sleepy Hollow. The focus
is mostly on the glorious scenery.
Adamovic places the wildlife in context, in other words it is just
seasonal behavior but also text that details the fauna and flora. The end of the book contains a location map
and directions, making the book a practical work of art.

The photos of the flowers and animals are
quite beautiful, including those photos of insect eating plants. The deer photo in particular was adorable.

Recently (as in literally this weekend), the cast of the Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale said it wasn't a feminist story. The creator of the series even said it was a story about a survival. This must come as news to Atwood who has never backed away from the "feminist" label the book has - she has declared it herself. While it is true the book does deal it with repression, it is FEMINIST. One never really sees cast distancing themselves from sports movie the same way. This first post is my review of Atwood's novel.

Source Pinterest

HT was not the first work by Atwood that I read, that was a short story or two in a Canadian Lit class, but it was the first novel by Atwood that I read. I read it over the summer, over the length of a day, torn between the story and the World Cup and walking the dog. It's a favorite novel, though not my favorite Atwood, that is The Robber Bride.

HT apparently has moved to the current events section of several libraries, moved from the fiction section. Women protesting anti-abortion laws in Washington DC have dressed up as Handmaids. The novel has been adapted both as a movie and an opera.

Perhaps the future that Atwood depicts in this novel won't come to past (we do seem to be past the date, yet even with the doubt (or knowledge) that such future will not exist, yet we see echoes of it in today's world. Events of the novel seem to happening regardless.

Okay, maybe not the dressing in red and blue, but the other issues. Women forbidden to work and read, women who can't own anything not even thier bodies, women who must produce a child or be cast aside, young girls married off to men they don't know. Even if those places were equality reigns women still, on average, earn less than men for the same amount of work. Atwood's Gilead is at once far off and too near, a point that all good literature has. (The blame on Islamic terrorists is a very intersting connection to the current day).

While the book is feminist, it is also humanist. Offred might be passive but in the characters of Luke, Offred's mom, and Moira we have the feminist voice. If anything, the book is a caution about either type of extreme - extreme religion and extreme sexual freedom (Feels on wheels, Pormomarts) - both of which seem to be, to various degrees, not good.

Additionally, Atwood deals with the issue of complancy. Offred is less feminist than her mother, than Moira. And while we admire both mom and Moira we think we might be more like Offred, because nameless Offred (of Fred) is the Everywoman in this Everyman parable.

Perhaps this is the reason why this story is so timeless, why it stands the test of time, why it would've made Atwood's name even if she never wrote anything else. The questions it raises about gender, women, society, life, and family are still one we debate today, are still definitions we debate today - what is a family, is abortion about life or control of a woman's body, why the differences standards for women and men?

Assateague owes it fame to ponies, perhaps mostly to Misty and her family. There is, however, far more diverse wildlife on the island then simply horses. Marc Hendricks book on the island showcases this quite well. According to his text, Hendricks has made a study of Assateague for a great many years. And while there are beautiful photos of the ponies, there are a great many beautiful photos that details the Sika, birds, and water life of the island.

The books chapters are photographer’s journey – in regards to various animals. Hendricks is able to connect the reader to the capture of the photography. And yes, one of the journeys does detail a pony, a black stallion to be more exact.

The true selling point of the book is the photo, and these are quite lovely. If you love nature, the ponies, or have been to Assateague, this is an ideal book.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Red and WolfCindy
EllerBBW
Shifter: I Shifted and She Liked itStranded
with the WolfBought
by the Billion bearJinn
of LustBeardly Sane

Wet for Nessie

And other kindle freebie erotic short stories

Of the books, short stories really, featured
above I only managed to finish one. That would beStranded with the Wolfbecause it actually put some effort
into developing characters. Yet, they all have something in common. Even if the
book itself doesn't advertise it (and some do), all the books seem to have this
idea of an "alpha" in common. Now, if you read regular urban fantasy,
you will be thinking that means like a leader of a pack. Well, in these types
of books, it does and it doesn't.

An alpha apparently means a boss man who is one
step removed from being a rapist (at least in the legal sense) and overcomes
the woman. It isn't seduction at all. It isn't erotic, at least by my
definition.

I know fantasies are fantasies. That what one
dreams or imagines doing (or even does in play) isn't the same as really,
actually doing it. But I have also read enough theory (feminist and otherwise)
that argues (and does so very well), that rape fantasies are not so much about
the woman's desires but about the man's or what a man tells (thinks, believes)
a woman desires. Reading these, even the one I finished, it's hard not to agree
with that. It's hard not to think of "grab them by the pussy".

Before I go on, I should point out that in one
area many of the books stand out and that is in the use of curvy heroines, and
in a few cases overweight heroines (not on the covers, however). While this
does becomes slightly problematic in terms of a "message" (such girls
only get this type of guy), it does make a nice change. Additionally, there is,
in some of the stories, a feeling of fanfiction or Mary Sue. In other words,
the author is playing with an idea they wish another work had used or done.
Furthermore, the ones featured here, while not having the best writing and
being somewhat dull (or more telling than showing) do not have the glaring errors
in word usage and basic grammar that many others do. There was some level
editing beyond using Spellcheck. In very few cases, the basic editing was
better than that of50 Shades.

But the Alpha idea is quite frankly disturbing.
I know it's smut, but still. I mean there is smut that doesn't use it the same
way (I know because I've read some). Even the ones with bear and cat (solitary
non-pack animals) shifters are about the alpha and the search for the mate. For
the mate, all the guy has to do is smell the girl (and in most cases the girl
is far younger than the man. The one where she wasn't, she was written as if
she was). Furthermore, in all of the books, the man is in a position of power
over the girl (and yes I am using girl not woman for a reason). This is true
even of the one book where she hires him. There is something off about such
complete domination. While the idea of a man recognizing a woman's true beauty
regardless of body type is wonderful, this is undermined slightly by the fact
that it is because of her smell, because of fate. In other words, he is moved
by biology more than anything else. The
story is more about his fulfilling his fate or biology. The women in these stories are not affected
in quite the same way, just the man.
This drive to mate is the Alpha’s excuse for acting the way he
does. The story isn’t love and quite
frankly it seems more of a story of possession instead of mutual lust.

The heroine is the vessel that he must take and
protect from other shifters or magical beings who want her.

But okay, it's smut and we don't really want a
plot that makes sense or good world building. Perhaps, but the domination thing
is the problem. It isn't just superiority in the sense of his money, his
intelligence, his magical shifting, but also in his mental toughness and his
wants. At no point in any of these books did I get the sense that if the girl
said no, the man would back off. In fact, in "Red and the Wolf" she
has been groomed for him. We should just be glad he waited until she graduated
college before he made the moves on her. Not that there were that many moves
before huffing and puffing. The books aren't about a woman's desire and her
sexuality but about a girl (regardless of age) who is being dominated by a man
because that is what happens. Even when reading the "erotic" senses,
and despite the mentioning of the girl's moans and screams in organism, it
still seems to be about the man. The girls are always very tight, even if they
aren't virgins (and isn't that disturbing for another reason) and more detail
is given to his being pleasured than hers. In all the books here, the girl never,
ever has any control over anything - not over what she eats, what she wears,
who she loves - SHE HAS NO CONTROL.

The idea of girl with a man is something that
runs through a great many of these freebie books. It is even the virginity. There is a tendency to have a shaved vagina,
as if a natural woman isn’t enough. I
don’t know if various experts are correct when they link the shaving as a
desire to have the female porn star more closely resemble a girl, but the idea
is enough to freak me out. In many of
these freebie stories, even if the hero is older in terms of a years, she acts
like a young girl, as teen. In other stories,
she might act young, but her age is young.
It is not uncommon in these stories for the heroine to be a doctor or
well established in her career, one that many times requires a few years, yet
she will be mid-twenties at the oldest.
In other stories, she is just in college, usually a freshmen or sophomore. In most, she is less experienced than the
hero. In many, she works for him.

The question, I guess I am asking is how come
so many of these types of “romance” novels are proper. Why the domination, why the alpha, why the
man’s desire being central to the story (his fate). Usually the hero is also the more active, and
if the woman is she meets the man she wants babies.

It’s true that these stories are designed for
the reading pleasure or a quick buck. And
this is true. Yet, we see the trend in
those books published by big named publishing houses as well. 50 Shades anyone? And the politics in the stories, do seem to
be played out in the news. It isn’t just
Trump. There have been cases where the unconscious
women are seen to have given consent because she didn’t say no, or at least
that is how the rapists claim they see it.
The effect of the case on the rapist is given more weight than on his
victim, especially if he is a sports star.
A woman’s dress and behavior is questioned. Her sexual history is put on trial, not
his. Her motives are called into
question.

And yet, there are hundreds of these books were
the hero engages in behavior that should at the very least get him smacked if
not arrested. There are a great many
movies. There are photo spreads for GQ.

There are ads like the one below:

or

How sad is it that the trend is re-enforced by
fiction that is supposedly for women?

Though I have always thought it was fiction
more for men so women could be brainwashed into having sex the way men want.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

If you
don’t know, Underground airs one WGN America, a cable network. The show is set prior to the start of the
American Civil War (the second season is leading upon to Brown and Harper’s
Ferry) and focuses on the Macon 7, a group of slaves trying to escape the Macon
Plantation. The focus is on three of
these run-ons, Rosalee, Noah, and Cato.
The main cast is rounded out by Ernestine (Rosalee’s mother), Elizabeth
(an abolitionist), and August (a slave catcher). Additionally, there are several supporting
characters.

I
started watching because of Journee Smollet-Bell. She has earned the right to my time ever
since Eve’s Bayou. I kept watching
because of the wonderful writing and the strong women, who are strong in so
many different ways

The
first season, as the name implies, was focused on the Macon 7 and their quest for freedom. Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and her mother
(Amirah Van) work in the house, Cato (Alano Miller) works as an assistant to
the overseer, and Noah (Aldais Hodge) has been recaptured after an escape. Part of the first season focuses on the
groundwork the seven most do to escape, the other half on the escape. Breaks are taken from the on the run plot as
the viewer spends time with Elizabeth (Jessica De Gouw) and her husband, John
(Marc Blucas) as well as what happens to those left behind. Even slave catcher August (Christopher
Meloni) is given a backstory and a family that makes him human.

The
second season widens the scope – Rosalee works with Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth
joins a Sewing Circle that isn’t just about sewing, and the others struggle through
various hardships.

Each
episode of Underground is well written, well directed, and well-acted. Everything that occurs in the series has an
historical precedent or draws on a historical documented fact. The cast and crew also trust the viewer. There is a gut wrenching scene in the first
episode where Rosalee steps in and takes a punishment for her younger brother
James. The viewer suspects, and then
knows, that Tom Macon, the owner of the plantation and the man who okays the
punishment, is Rosalee’s (and James’) biological father. This is conveyed thought the excellent acting
of both Amirah Vann and Reed Diamond (who guested as Tom Macon). Even a character like Elizabeth, who I first
thought would be the weakest developed character, is given not only depth, but
who surprisingly quickly became a second favorite. In many ways, one of the greatest pleasures
of the first season is watching both Rosalee and Elizabeth discover their
hidden strengths in different and surprising ways – their interior journeys
mirroring the harrowing onscreen escape saga.

The
first season also dealt with issues such as sex and rape in terms of slavery –
not only from the enslaved woman’s point of view but from the enslaved man’s
point of view, for Cato and Noah go to some lengths to gain some vital equipment
for the escape.

And it
isn’t just the issue of sex and rape, but also the question of morality and how
slavery forces people into some tough choices.
Ernestine makes questionable and possibly immoral choices all for the
safety of her family, of her children.
That is her driving force. Cato,
oh Cato. Cato is the most complex
character of are, and the area of ultimate debate -good, bad, or simply what
those who abused him made him?

And it
isn’t only the good guys. August is not
a good guy, in fact Detective Stabler would beat him up. But the creators are smart enough to make him
human, and the story of his son, Ben, is one of the best developments and plots
of season one.

The
stand out episode of season one was “Cradle”, an episode told entirely though
the viewpoints of children – James (Maceo Smedley), Boo (Darielle Stewart), Ben
(Brady Permenter), T.R. Macon (Toby Nichols), and Henry (Renwick D Scott). Standout is a relative term – there are, as
with every show, a few points where the eyebrows raise, but every upset is made
with heart and care. Standout here just
means a little, and in most cases, inventive or bold – as is the case in using
the viewpoints children. But Underground
does this. It does not shy away

This
season’s stand out episode, at least so far, is “Minty”. “Minty” is what good television should be and
what very few networks will ever do. The
whole premise is a speech given by Harriet Tubman (Aisha Hinds). That’s it.
Just Hinds as Tubman speaking in front of an audience. It is a bold move.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

1. The five paragraph essay - unless the teacher/prof assigns exactly five paragraphs. Nothing is really said in many of these essays and all thesis statements sound alike. So do the topic sentences.

2. Much more - what the hell does that mean?

3. I personally remember - Really? Do people remember for you on a regular basis so you have to say you personally do?

4. The reason being is because: no shit, Sherlock.

5. the people that - People are not things. You should use who. People who. The same is true for it. The only time a person is an it is if (1) he/she wants to be or (2) you are being insulting.

6. In today's society - okay, so what about tomorrow's?

7. Girls when referring to women over the age of 18.

8. Females when referring to women. This usually goes like "men and females". I do not get it at all.

9. Heshe is not acceptable for a transgender person. IT is REALLY not acceptable.

10. Make sure you are treating proper names correctly.

11. Make sure your facts are correct. So China is not part of Japan, Lincoln did not go to the movies, and Hitler's son did not free the slaves. Incidentally, the Civil War (American) was not fought in 1920.

12. Martin Luther King Jr never fought in the rumble in the jungle. Seriously.

13. If your hero is Christ (basically God). Great. Do not try to convert the teacher. DO NOT end with "REPENT NOW OR DIE!!!!!"

14. Whilst does not make you sound smart.

15. Big words only work if you actually use them correctly.

16. Commas are really important. Get them right.

17. Beware of the word all. Very few things are "all".

18. there/their/they're are three different words and are not interchangeable.

19. Neither are student and kid.

20. A kid is a baby goat.

21. All that blank space between paragraphs? You are fooling NO ONE!

22. Sam's book - means the book Sam has.

23. Sams book - means there is more than one Sam with a word that does nothing

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Apparently, earlier this week some white teen in a high
school you never heard of it did a stunt to ask a famous star to the prom. On one hand, I admire both the guts of these
young men (and it is usually young men) but on the other one hand, the stunts
always leave a bad taste in my mouth.

What
the hell does Emma Stone owe this teen?
Nothing. In fact, one could argue
that he capitalizes on the popularity of her last movie to get himself ten
minutes of fame. He gets on the news, he
gets written up as far away as Australia.
He admits, to be fair, that he did not simply to get noticed, maybe some
free swag or something.

But
that doesn’t really disturb me, outside in a “I know it’s stupid” way. It’s the reaction more than anything. Reporters usually end the report with the
hint that Stone should so yes. But, why should
he? How is this anything more than
putting public pressure on someone to do what you want? Take away the fame of the object (and Stone
is being treated as an object) would we really be looking at this the same
way? Would the reports think it
cute? Would people be saying that Stone
should say yes?

And why
is it usually suburban high schools and young white males? I know this isn’t all the class. There was a couple that invented a footballer
to their wedding. But they just sent him
an invitation, and it wasn’t news until he showed. There was no pressure on him. It’s the reaction, the expectation that not
only does Emma Stone owe him answer, but if she was a nice person she would say
yes.

Monday, April 3, 2017

In my
English 101 class, we just talked about spies and saboteurs in World War
II. It was in a conversation about an
essay that dealt with the changing nature of history books in schools. We were discussing people and ideas that
history books leave out. Female
resistance members and the dropping of people into occupied countries came up.

Perhaps
we don’t like talking about such people in wars because there is a whiff, just
a whiff, of something not quite right.
It is almost sneaky but in an understandable way. It is the question of tough choices and we
really know that real spies are not James Bond in any of his incarnations. It is messy and tough, and not fair.

Perhaps
that is why. Perhaps this is also why we
romanticize the role because we know that it is a necessary one.

This
slim volume gives a brief history of the OSS (the forerunner to the CIA) built
pretty much by Wild Bill Donovan as well as detailing some of the lesser known
missions. Both Alsop and Braden worked
for the OSS, so the reader gets a sense of wanting the deserved
acknowledgement.

Considering
the time in which the authors lived, they deserve absolute kudos for noting
woman agents and pointing out that the women agents did not hesitate to throw
themselves out of perfectly good airplanes.
It almost makes up for the use of only male missions in the second section
of the book.

The
authors also note the use of non-white agents as well.

Yet the
authors do deserve praise for not trying to sugar coat not only the risks but
also the need to sometimes act in a less than chivalrous way, this is
particularly true of the last class.

At
times, the stories seem to be a bit blogged down with words (and sometimes with
too similar names), yet Alsop and Braden do a good job at bringing a little
known but very important role in the Second World War to light.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Today, Hans Christian Andersen would be given drugs and
therapy, and then more drugs. He would be put into a study about repressed
homosexuals and boys with a mamma fixation. All this because of his stories.
Andersen’s stories are also not very happy when you truly think about them. For
every happy story, like “The Ugly Duckling”, there are at least two sad
stories.

"Ugly Duckling"illustration by Theo van Hoyetma

(Source Pinterst)

Yet Andersen, at least in American circles, is considered a children’s author.
Whether this is due to those editions or retellings of Andersen’s stories that
make the ending happy, I don’t know. I do know that I have read Andersen more
times than I have read the Brothers Grimm and that Andersen speaks to more
people than the Grimm brothers ever will.

Princess and the Pea by Carter Goodrich

(Source Pintesret)

The Grimms were interested in collecting folktales and folklore. Andersen is
interested in telling stories. Outside of Demark and other northern countries,
he is known for his stories, in particular for his fairy stories. This is
misleading for Andersen also wrote plays and poems as well as travelogues and
autobiographies. His first success wasn’t with his fairy stories. His poem
about a mother mourning her dead children is touching (and a theme that enters
into one of his tales). Even just considering his stories, people are misled.
Everyone thinks they know “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling”, or “The
Little Match Girl”, fewer people know the stories how they actually are and
even fewer know more of Andersen’s work, such as “The Shadow” or ‘”The Storks”.
This does Andersen a huge injustice.

Little Match Girl Stamp

(Source Pinterst)

Andersen was heavily influenced by several things in his writing. It is common
knowledge that he was influenced by folklore and the stories told to him by his
grandmother, but he was also influenced by the German writers that predated him
or who were his contemporaries. While it is not apparent in his better known
tales, he had a strong love of country (even though he always seemed to be
traveling away from it) as well as a good dose of patriotism. He was also
religious, though this seems to come though in his tale more than anything
else.

Danish Coins featuring Andersen

(Source Pinterest)

Several critics have pointed out that Andersen has a cult of suffering. His
leads his heroes and heroines always suffer. The Ugly Duckling gets frozen in
water, the Little Mermaid feels as if she is walking on knives (or broken
glass); the Marsh King’s Daughter is transformed into a frog, the little Match
Girl freezes to death, the money pig breaks, the storks deliver dead babies.
Andersen’s characters seem to suffer far more than those people in the Grimm’s
tales (though that isn’t a cake walk either). Andersen, however, is still a
considered a children’s author because of the tone, his use of sound (read his
tales aloud if you don’t believe me), of putting himself in a child’s shoes
(who doesn’t imagine the flowers coming to life).

Love's Teeny Lure Teapot, inspired by "Little Mermaid"

(Source Pinterest)

Too often people look at Andersen in the simplest terms. Take “The Little
Mermaid” for example. Many today know the story not as Andersen’s but as
Disney’s. They think that the mermaid marries her prince and everyone lives
happily ever after. While the cursory reader of Andersen knows that this is not
the ending, a deeper reading reveals, if not a happy ending, perhaps a slightly
hopeful one as well as a few details about the prince. In the mermaid’s story,
Andersen presents a people where the women seem to help each (the witch, the
mermaid’s sisters, the mermaid herself) and where the only male who does
anything is the prince himself. The mermaid and her sisters are desexualized
(she loses her voice, they their hair). The prince treats the mermaid like his
pet dog. The mermaid, however, wants a soul more than a prince. She acts more
as if she has a soul more than prince. By taking “The Little Mermaid” and
reducing the plot to a love story, the adaptor or reader does Andersen a
disservice and dismisses the larger issue. In the story, it is the non-humans,
the merfolk, who appear to have those virtues that humanity claims –
compassion. The mermaid might eventually get her soul though she doesn’t get
her prince. Today, there is a movement to de-religion stores (look at Narnia in
both the movies and the exhibit), but to do so to Andersen guts this story.

"Marsh King's Daughter" Illustration by Artus Scheiner

(Source Pinterst)

Or take “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, one of Andersen’s lesser known popular
tales. Fairy Tales always treat rape as a non issue or blame the victim. Sleeping
Beauty, for example, in some versions is woken by the birth of twins, yet never
seems to feel any emotional upheaval. Andersen is one of the few fairy tale
writers to deal with the issue of rape and not fully gloss over it. Like the
Grimms, who buried the incest theme of some tales, Andersen glosses over the
attack that starts “The Marsh King’s Daughter”. The daughter of the title is
the offspring of the Marsh King and the Egyptian princess who he attacks. This
daughter is full of rage and pain except at night when she becomes a frog. Part
of the story is about the daughter coming to terms with this rage. Where else
would the rage come off except for the attack on the mother?

Illustration for Thumblina by Dani Soon

(Source Pinterest)

Many of Andersen’s tales are concerned with relationships, in particular those
of mothers and children. Many critics have discovered or argued for the
presence of Andersen’s own relationship with his mother in these tales.
Andersen’s mother, who gave birth to a bastard daughter before marrying
Andersen’s father, comes off looking less like a saint and more like a drunk if
this is true. But then, there is a tale like “She Was a Good for Nothing” where
the mother is a drunk who dearly loves and cares for her son. In this story,
Andersen contrasts public view versus private life, of how the upper class
views the lower class.

Illustration from "The Tinderbox"

Andersen is often concerned with class in his tales. The upper classes tend to
be dismissive of the lower classes, though it is the lower classes that exhibit
more of those human virtues. Sometimes, like in “The Tinderbox”, Andersen even
seems to attack the royalty, seemingly suggesting that the old order must give
to the new. Even in his class stories, Andersen also shows a great love and
knowledge of his country. Some of his stories are about the humble beginnings
of Great Danes (no, not the dogs) like Thorvaldsen, whose work Andersen seemed
to love if Andersen’s stories are anything to go by. It should also be noted
that in some of stories, especially in stories where different classes of
children met, Andersen suggests more of equality than out and out class
warfare.

Hans Christian Andersen Hus, Odenese

(Source Pinterst)

Andersen’s stories aren’t all for children; in fact, as he wrote more stories,
Andersen saw himself as writing more for adults and this would example the
class conscious stories, but also the longer stories like “The Ice Maiden” or
“Ib and Little Christine”. It is in the longer stories that one can see the
German romantic influence on Andersen. While the tales are more adult, they
also consider several of the same themes that inhabit his more child friendly
stories. While “Ib and Little Christine” can be rather annoying if you are
female reader, it is impossible to describe the creeping feeling of unease that
stories such as “The Ice Maiden” and “The Shadow” inspire.

Illustration for "The Snow Queen" by Angela Barrett

(Source: Pinterest)

Andersen borrowed from more than his grandmother and the Germans. His “The Rose
Elf” presents a revenge minded “Pot of Basil”, a twist on a familiar tale
presented by Boccaccio but also used by Keats among others. Andersen’s
variation of the “Seven Swans” makes far more sense than other versions, even
if it is chaster than those other versions.

Andersen’s most famous story might be “The Ugly Duckling”, a story that many
critics, rightly it seems, consider to be Andersen’s most autobiographical
work. This isn’t to say that the similar theme of belonging, of fitting in,
doesn’t appear in other works. There are shades of “Duckling” in “Thumbelina”
as well as some of the class conscious Andersen short stories. “The Ugly
Duckling” is more memorable because the plot of the story could happen. The
plot of “Thumbelina”, not so much. We believe in the duckling becoming the swan
because of the way Andersen sets up the story – a mistake could happen. Today,
even with all our supposed advancements, you still have hospital mix ups.

Ice Maiden Cover

(Source Pinterst)

In most of Andersen’s stories, the reader can meet actual places and people
that Andersen knew or admired. Edvard Collin, Andersen’s man crush, appears, as
does Jenny Lind. Even smaller characters in Andersen’s history, less well known
to the average reader, seem to appear. Andersen’s teachers, the women Andersen
felt rejected him (or whom Andersen allowed himself to be rejected by); all
seem to appear. Copenhagen is a time honored companion in the stories, but so
is Andersen’s love of Italy. This sense of place gives another level of reality
to the tales, a level that seems to be missing from the works of the Grimms or
Perrault.

While many of Andersen’s tales have “morals” or lessons, they are not spelled
out as in the work of Aesop or Fontatine. Andersen respects his reader, be that
reader a child or an adult, and knows that his reader can follow his lesson
without the moral being directly spelled out. Perhaps it is this reason that
examines Andersen’s staying power even among, or especially among, female
readers.

Moira Shearer by Sir William Russel Flint

(Source Pinterst)

Andersen’s female characters do seem to get punished at far steeper rate than
his male characters. While it is true that the Ugly Duckling freezes, his end
is far different than those ends of the girls in “The Little Match Girl”, “The
Red Shoes” or “The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf”. To say that Andersen was sexist
would be a mistake. Even in stories where the girl is horribly punished there
are good women – the grandmother, the girl who prays for Karen. More
importantly, one of Andersen’s most famous stories, “The Snow Queen” presents
two strong willed girls, one of whom keeps her independence; another of women
is helped by more women than man when she quests to save her childhood fan who
also is perhaps her adult love or husband.

The statue of the Little Mermaid in many
ways, is a fitting and unfitting memorial to Andersen. Like Andersen himself,
the statue has survived various attempts to deface it. Andersen faults against
those who mocked him, who tried to educate the imagination out of him, or who
ignored him because of his class. He survived the fact that he would not be
able to fulfill his first dream, to be a dancer. The statue of the mermaid has
overcome beheadings, defacing, and veils to still exist as a tourist attraction.
But like the works of Andersen’s own works, few people who see the statue know
true story of the character the statue is based on, few know the story of the
statue itself or of the Kasslett located nearby. Fewer know that it is not the
only statue in Copenhagen depicting a merperson that has connection to Andersen
(he wrote a story based on the Forsake Merman). Perhaps it is this sense of
mystery that keeps Andersen’s popularity. We are introduced to him at two
points in our lives. The first time when we are children. The second time when
we are older, perhaps after seeing the statue or reading a story to a child. We
can have two different readings of Andersen, the man and his work.